Tips and Suggestions for Traveling with Kids
Put an end to the boredom while traveling with your kids. Plan ahead, and traveling with kids can be a pleasant and relaxing experience. Your kids will love traveling, and you’ll enjoy time spent on the road with your kids.
The key to happiness when traveling with kids stems on providing things to do, and the activities you provide for your kids while traveling shouldn’t drive you wacky in the process. The following tips and suggestions for traveling with kids will provide you with ideas to keep your kids happy for several hours while traveling. Build on these tips and suggestions and come up with additional things to do while traveling with your kids. Taking the time to plan things to do before traveling is well worth your time.
The Versatility of a Shoe Bag
A shoe bag can serve double duty while traveling with kids. A shoe bag can be hung the window to block the hot sun, and a shoe bag has pockets that are just the right size to hold toys and games. Consider buying a child’s shoe bag to hang in the backseat window of your car. If you have more than one child, buy a couple of shoe bags. Before traveling, have your kids fill the shoe bags with their favorite small games and toys. They’ll have a variety of things to do within easy reach, and they won’t complain about the sun shining in their eyes.
There are obviously only two sides to a vehicle, so if you have a third child that sits in the center of the backseat, don’t expect that child to share a bag with a sibling. That would surely create an argument. Consider buying a pocketed bag that attaches over the headrest of the front seat. That way everyone has their very own bag full of things to do while traveling.
Foiled Again
Kids get tired of the same toys and games while traveling, and kids are famous for playing with objects that aren’t really toys. Everyone has heard that kids will play with the box the toy came in rather than the toy itself. If you’re foiled when trying to come up with something fun and creative for kids to do while traveling, give your creative kids a simple ball of foil to play with. This might sound more like an impromptu toy for cats, but the designs that can be created with foil are truly amazing. Challenge your traveling kids to create works of art from balls of foil. They can create foil sculptures, geometric foil shapes, and much more. Encourage your kids to use their imagination while traveling, and give them a toy they can reshape over and over. Best of all, there won’t be a mess to clean up.
Take Time to Stop
Dads are famous for not wanting to stop while traveling, but if you want to remain happy by keeping your kids happy, take the time to stop on the way to your destination. Take the stress out of traveling, and leave early so you have time to stop.
While traveling with kids, don’t expect a quick gas station stop to satisfy the need to stretch. Stop at a park or rest stop where kids can burn off pent-up energy. When the kids get back in the car, they’ll be more likely to want to sit quietly and play, or they might even take a nap.
Fill a Surprise Box
Everyone loves a surprise, especially kids. Before traveling with kids, consider bringing along a box of wrapped surprises such as low-cost handheld electronic games, travel games, sliding puzzles, or whatever you think your kids will like. Even if you end up spending ten or twenty dollars on small surprises, it might be the best ten or twenty dollars you’ve ever spent. Pull out a new surprise every couple of hours, and your kids will have plenty to do. If traveling with kids isn’t going as well as expected, the threat of not receiving the next surprise will probably be enough to correct the problem.
Don’t Forget the Snacks
Even if you don’t normally eat or drink in your vehicle, you can’t expect kids to go without snacks while traveling. There are snacks you can take while traveling that won’t create a mess, and these snacks will keep kids from becoming hungry, thirsty, and unhappy.
Consider taking all-natural fruit snacks while traveling with kids. Fruit snacks aren’t messy, and fruit snacks contain vitamins and natural sugar rather than refined sugar that promotes hyperactive behavior. Pretzels, raw vegetables, and dry cereal are also good snack choices when traveling with kids.
For obvious reasons, drinks should be somewhat limited while traveling, but where there is food, drinks become necessary. Instead of sugared soft drinks that can spill while traveling with kids, consider buying bottled drinks with tops that screw up and down while still attached. There are a few brands of flavored water and sports drinks that offer these types of lids. Consider drinks such as these next time you plan on traveling with kids.
